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THE REFORMED PASTOR
by Richard Baxter
CHAPTER 3 [contd]
APPLICATION
SECTION 2a – THE DUTY
OF PERSONAL CATECHIZING AND INSTRUCTING THE FLOCK PARTICULARLY RECOMMENDED
ARTICLE 2
MOTIVES FROM THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE WORK
Having stated to you the first class of
reasons, drawn from the benefits of the work, I come to the second sort, which are taken
from the difficulties. If these, indeed, were taken alone, I confess they might be rather
discouragements than motives; but taking them with those that go before and follow, the
case is far otherwise: for difficulties must excite to greater diligence in a necessary
work.
And difficulties we shall find many, both in ourselves and in our people; but because they
are things so obvious, that your experience will leave you no room to doubt of them, I
shall pass them over in a few words.
1. Let me notice the difficulties in ourselves.
(1) In ourselves there is much dulness and laziness, so that it will not be easy to get us to be faithful in so hard a work. Like a sluggard in bed, that knows he should rise, and yet delayeth and would lie as long as he can, so do we by duties to which our corrupt natures are averse. This will put us to the use of all our powers. Mere sloth will tie the hands of many.
(2) We have a base man-pleasing disposition, which will make us let men perish lest we lose their love, and let them go quietly to hell, lest we should make them angry with us for seeking their salvation: and we are ready to venture on the displeasure of God, and risk the everlasting misery of our people, rather than draw on ourselves their ill-will. This distemper must be diligently resisted.
(3) Many of us have also a foolish bashfulness, which makes us backward to begin with them, and to speak plainly to them. We are so modest, forsooth, that we blush to speak for Christ, or to contradict the devil, or to save a soul, while, at the same time, we are less ashamed of shameful works.
(4) We are so carnal that we are drawn by our fleshly interests to be unfaithful in the work of Christ, lest we should lessen our income, or bring trouble upon ourselves, or set people against us, or such like. All these things require diligence in order to resist them.
(5) We are so weak in the faith, that this is the greatest impediment of all. Hence it is, that when we should set upon a man for his conversion with all our might, if there be not the stirrings of unbelief within us, whether there be a heaven and a hell, yet at least the belief of them is so feeble, that it will hardly excite in us a kindly, resolute, constant zeal, so that our whole motion will be but weak, because the spring of faith is so weak. O what need, therefore, have ministers for themselves and their work, to look well to their faith, especially that their assent to the truth of Scripture, about the joys and torments of the life to come, be sound and lively.
(6) Lastly, We have commonly a great deal of unskilfulness and unfitness for this work. Alas! how few know how to deal with an ignorant, worldly man, for his conversion! To get within him and win upon him; to suit our speech to his condition and temper; to choose the meetest subjects, and follow them with a holy mixture of seriousness, and terror, and love, and meekness, and evangelical allurements — oh! who is fit for such a thing? I profess seriously, it seems to me, by experience, as hard a matter to confer aright with such a carnal person, in order to his change, as to preach such sermons as ordinarily we do, if not much more. All these difficulties in ourselves should awaken us to holy resolution, preparation, and diligence, that we may not be overcome by them, and hindered from or in the work.
2. Having noticed these difficulties in ourselves, I shall now mention some which we shall meet with in our people.
(1) Many of them will be obstinately unwilling to be taught; and scorn to come to us, as being too good to be catechized, or too old to learn, unless we deal wisely with them in public and private, and study, by the force of reason, and the power of love, to conquer their perverseness.
(2) Many that are willing are so dull, that they can scarcely learn a leaf of a catechism in a long time, and therefore they will keep away, as ashamed of their ignorance, unless we are wise and diligent to encourage them.
(3) And when they do come, so great is the ignorance and unapprehensiveness of many, that you will find it a very hard matter to get them to understand you; so that if you have not the happy art of making things plain, you will leave them as ignorant as before.
(4) And yet harder will you find it to work things upon their hearts, and to set them so home to their consciences, as to produce that saving change, which is our grand aim, and without which our labor is lost. Oh what a block, what a rock, is a hardened, carnal heart! How strongly will it resist the most powerful persuasions, and hear of everlasting life or death, as a thing of nought! If, therefore, you have not great seriousness, and fervency, and powerful matter, and fitness of expression, what good can you expect. And when you have done all, the Spirit of grace must do the work. But as God and men usually choose instruments suitable to the nature of the work or end, so the Spirit of wisdom, life, and holiness doth not usually work by foolish, dead, carnal instruments, but by such persuasions of light and life and purity as are likest to itself, and to the work that is to be wrought thereby.
(5) Lastly, When you have made some desirable impressions on their hearts, if you look not after them, and have a special care of them, their hearts will soon return to their former hardness, and their old companions and temptations will destroy all again. In short, all the difficulties of the work of conversion, which you use to acquaint your people with, are before us in our present work.
ARTICLE 3
MOTIVES FROM THE NECESSITY OF THE WORK
The third sort of motives are drawn from
the necessity of the work. For if it were not necessary, the slothful might be discouraged
rather than excited by the difficulties now mentioned. But because I have already been
longer than I intended, I shall give you only a brief hint of some of the general grounds
of this necessity.
1. This duty is necessary for the glory of God. As every Christian liveth to the
glory of God, as his end, so will he gladly take that course which will most effectually
promote it. For what man would not attain his ends? O brethren, if we could set this work
on foot in all the parishes of England, and get our people to submit to it, and then
prosecute it skilfully and zealously ourselves, what a glory would it put upon the face of
the nation, and what glory would, by means of it, redound to God! If our common ignorance
were thus banished, and our vanity and idleness turned into the study of the way of life,
and every shop and every house were busied in learning the Scriptures and catechisms, and
speaking of the Word and works of God, what pleasure would God take in our cities and
country! He would even dwell in our habitations, and make them his delight. It is the
glory of Christ that shineth in his saints, and all their glory is his glory. That,
therefore, which honoureth them, in number or excellency, honoureth him. Will not the
glory of Christ be wonderfully displayed in the New Jerusalem, when it shall descend from
heaven in all that splendor and magnificence with which it is described in the Book of
Revelation? If, therefore, we can increase the number or strength of the saints, we shall
thereby increase the glory of the King of saints; for he will have service and praise
where before he had disobedience and dishonor. Christ will also be honored in the fruits
of his blood shed, and the Spirit of grace in the fruit of his operations. And do not such
important ends as these require that we use the means with diligence?
Every Christian is obliged to do all he can for the salvation of others; but every
minister is doubly obliged, because he is separated to the gospel of Christ, and is to
give up himself wholly to that work. It is needless to make any further question of our
obligation, when we know that this work is needful to our people’s conversion and
salvation, and that we are in general commanded to do all that is needful to these ends,
as far as we are able. Whether the unconverted have need of conversion, I hope is not
doubted among us. And whether this be a means, and a most needful means, experience may
put beyond a doubt, if we had no more. Let them that have taken most pains in public,
examine their people, and try whether many of them are not nearly as ignorant and careless
as if’ they had never heard the gospel. For my part, I study to speak as plainly and
movingly as I can, (and next to my study to speak truly, these are my chief studies,) and
yet I frequently meet with those that have been my hearers eight or ten years, who know
not whether Christ be God or man, and wonder when I tell them the history of his birth and
life and death, as if they had never heard it before. And of those who know the history of
the gospel, how few are there who know the nature of that faith, repentance, and holiness
which it requireth, or, at least, who know their own hearts? But most of them have an
ungrounded trust in Christ, hoping that he will pardon, justify, and save them, while the
world hath their hearts, and they live to the flesh. And this trust they take for
justifying faith. I have found by experience, that some ignorant persons, who have been so
long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half an
hour’s close discourse, than they did from ten years’ public preaching.
I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means, because we speak to
many at once. But it is usually far more effectual to preach it privately to a particular
sinner, as to himself: for the plainest man that is, can scarcely speak plain enough in
public for them to understand; but in private we may do it much more. In public we may not
use such homely expressions, or repetitions, as their dulness requires, but in private we
may. In public our speeches are long, and we quite over-run their understandings and
memories, and they are confounded and at a loss, and not able to follow us, and one thing
drives out another, and so they know not what we said. But in private we can take our work
gradatim, and take our hearers along with us; and, by our questions, and their
answers, we can see how far they understand us, and what we have next to do. In public, by
length and speaking alone we lose their attention; but when they are interlocutors, we can
easily cause them to attend. Besides, we can better answer their objections, and engage
them by promises before we leave them, which in public we cannot do. I conclude,
therefore, that public preaching will not be sufficient: for though it may be an effectual
means to convert many, yet not so many, as experience, and God’s appointment of
further means, may assure us. Long may you study and preach to little purpose, if you
neglect this duty.
2. This duty is necessary to the welfare of our people. Brethren, can you look
believingly on your miserable people, and not perceive them calling to you for help? There
is not a sinner whose case you should not so far compassionate, as to be willing to
relieve them at a much dearer rate than this comes to. Can you see them, as the wounded
man by the way, and unmercifully pass by? Can you hear them cry to you, as the man of
Macedonia to Paul, in vision, ‘Come and help us," and yet refuse your help? Are
you intrusted with the charge of an hospital, where one languisheth in one corner, and
another groaneth in another, and crieth out, ‘Oh, help me, pity me for the
Lord’s sake! ’ and where a third is raging mad, and would destroy himself and
you; and yet will you sit idle and refuse your help If it may be said of him that
relieveth not men’s bodies, how much more of him that relieveth not men’s souls,
‘If he see his brother have need, and shut up his bowels of compassion from him, how
dwelleth the love of God in him? ’ You are not such monsters, such hard-hearted men,
but you will pity a leper; you will pity the naked, the imprisoned, or the desolate; you
will pity him that is tormented with grievous pain or sickness; and will you not pity an
ignorant, hard-hearted sinner will you not pity one that must be shut out from the
presence of the Lord, and lie under his remediless wrath, if thorough repentance speedily
prevent it not? Oh what a heart is it that will not pity such a one! What shall I call the
heart of such a man? A heart of stone, a very rock or adamant; the heart of a tiger; or
rather the heart of an infidel: for surely if he believed the misery of the impenitent, it
is not possible but he should take pity on him. Can you tell men in the pulpit that they
shall certainly be damned, except they repent, and yet have no pity on them when you have
proclaimed to them such a danger And if you pity them, will you not do this much for their
salvation?
How many around you are blindly hastening to perdition, while your voice is appointed to
be the means of arousing and reclaiming them! The physician hath no excuse who is doubly
bound to relieve the sick, when even every neighbor is bound to help them. Brethren, what
if you heard sinners cry after you in the streets, ‘O sir, have pity on me, and
afford me your advice! I am afraid of the everlasting wrath of God. I know I must shortly
leave this world, and I am afraid lest I shall be miserable in the next.’ Could you
deny your help to such poor sinners? What if they came to your study-door, and cried for
help, and would not go away till you had told them how to escape the wrath of God? Could
you find in your hearts to drive them away without advice? I am confident you could not.
Why, alas! such persons are less miserable than they who will not cry for help. It is the
hardened sinner who cares not for your help, that most needs it: and he that hath not so
much life as to feel that he is dead, nor so much light as to see his danger, nor so much
sense left as to pity himself — this is the man that is most to be pitied. Look upon
your neighbors around you, and think how many of them need your help in no less a case
than the apparent danger of damnation. Suppose that you heard every impenitent person whom
you see and know about you crying to you for help, As ever you pitied poor wretches, pity
us, lest we should be tormented in the flames of hell: if you have the hearts of men, pity
us.’ Now, do that for them that you would do if they followed you with such
expostulations. Oh how can you walk, and talk, and be merry with such people, when you
know their case? Methinks, when you look them in the face, and think how they must suffer
everlasting misery, you should break forth into tears (as the prophet did when he looked
upon Hazael), and then fall on with the most importunate exhortations. When you visit them
in their sickness, will it not wound your hearts to see them ready to depart into misery,
before you have ever dealt seriously with them for their conversion? Oh, then, for the
Lord’s sake, and for the sake of poor souls, have pity on them, and bestir
yourselves, and spare no pains that may conduce to their salvation.
3. This duty is necessary to your own welfare, as well as to your people’s.
This is your work, according to which, among others, you shall be judged. You can no more
be saved without ministerial diligence and fidelity, than they or you can be saved without
Christian diligence and fidelity. If, therefore, you care not for others, care at least
for yourselves. Oh what a dreadful thing is it to answer for the neglect of such a charge!
and what sin more heinous than the betraying of souls? Doth not that threatening make you
tremble — ‘If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked
man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand ? ’ I
am afraid, nay, I have no doubt, that the day is near when unfaithful ministers will wish
that they had never known the charge of souls; but that they had rather been colliers, or
sweeps, or tinkers, than pastors of Christ’s flock, when, besides all the rest of
their sins, they shall have the blood of so many souls to answer for. O brethren, our
death, as well as our people’s, is at hand, and it is as terrible to an unfaithful
pastor as to any. When we see that die we must, and that there is no remedy; that no wit,
nor learning, nor popular applause, can avert the stroke, or delay the time; but, willing
or unwilling, our souls must be gone, and that into a world which we never saw, where our
persons and our worldly interest will not be respected; oh, then for a clear conscience,
that can say, ‘I lived not to myself but to Christ; I spared not my pains; I hid not
my talents; I concealed not men’s misery, nor the way of their recovery.’ O
sirs, let us therefore take time while we have it, and work while it is day; ‘for the
night cometh, when no man can work.’ This is our day too; and by doing good to
others, we must do good to ourselves. If you would prepare for a comfortable death, and a
great and glorious reward, the harvest is before you. Gird up the loins of your minds, and
quit yourselves like men, that you may end your days with these triumphant words: ‘I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
shall give unto me in that day.’ If you would be blessed with those that die in the
Lord, labor now, that you may rest from your labors then, and do such works as you would
wish should follow you, and not such as will prove your terror in the review.
ARTICLE 4
Having found so many and so powerful
reasons to move us to this work, I shall now apply them further for our humiliation and
excitation.
1. What cause have we to bleed before the Lord this day, that we have neglected so
great and good a work so long; that we have been ministers of the gospel so many years,
and done so little by personal instruction and conference for the saving of men’s
souls! If we had but set about this business sooner, who knows how many souls might have
been brought to Christ, and how much happier our congregations might have been? And why
might we not have done it sooner as well as now? I confess, there were many impediments in
our way, and so there are still, and will be while there is a devil to tempt, and a
corrupt heart in man to resist the light: but if the greatest impediment had not been in
ourselves, even in our own darkness, and dulness, and indisposedness to duty, and our
dividedness and unaptness to close for the work of God, I see not but much might have been
done before this. We had the same God to command us, and the same miserable objects of
compassion, and the same liberty from governors as now we have. We have sinned, and have
no just excuse for our sin; and the sin is so great, because the duty is so great, that we
should be afraid of pleading any excuse. The God of mercy forgive us, and all the ministry
of England, and lay not this or any of our ministerial negligences to our charge! Oh that
he would cover all our unfaithfulness, and, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, wash
away our guilt of the blood of souls; that when the chief Shepherd shall appear, we may
stand before him in peace, and may not be condemned for the scattering of his flock. And
oh that he would put up his controversy. which he hath against the pastors of his Church,
and not deal the worse with them for our sakes, nor suffer underminers or persecutors to
scatter them, as they have suffered his sheep to be scattered; and that he will not care
as little for us, as we have done for the souls of men; nor think his salvation too good
for us, as we have thought our labor and sufferings too much for men’s salvation!
As we have had many days of humiliation in England for the sins of the land, and the
judgments that have befallen us, I hope we shall hear that God will more thoroughly humble
the ministry, and cause them to bewail their own neglects, and to set apart some days
through the land to that end, that they may not think it enough to lament the sins of
others, while they overlook their own; and that God may not abhor our solemn national
humiliations, because they are managed by unhumbled guides; and that we may first prevail
with him for a pardon for ourselves, that we may be the fitter to beg for the pardon of
others.
And oh that we may cast out the dung of our pride, contention, self-seeking, and idleness;
lest God should cast our sacrifices as dung in our faces, and should cast us out as the
dung of the earth, as of late he hath done many others for a warning to us; and that we
may presently resolve in concord to mend our pace, before we feel a sharper spur than
hitherto we have felt.
2. And now, brethren, what have we to do for the time to come, but to deny our lazy
flesh, and rouse up ourselves to the work before us. The harvest is great, the laborers
are few; the loiterers and hinderers are many, the souls of men are precious, the misery
of sinners is great, and the everlasting misery to which they are near is greater, the
joys of heaven are inconceivable, the comfort of a faithful minister is not small, the joy
of extensive success will be a full reward. To be fellow-workers with God and his Spirit
is no little honor; to subserve the blood-shedding of Christ for men’s salvation is
not a light thing. To lead on the armies of Christ through the thickest of the enemy; to
guide them safely through a dangerous wilderness; to steer the vessels through such storms
and rocks and sands and shelves, and bring it safe to the harbour of rest, requireth no
small skill and diligence. The fields now seem even white unto harvest; the preparations
that have been made for us are very great; the season of working is more calm than most
ages before us have ever seen. We have carelessly loitered too long already; the present
time is posting away; while we are trifling, men are dying; oh how fast are they passing
into another world! And is there nothing in all this to awaken us to our duty, nothing to
resolve us to speedy and unwearied diligence? Can we think that a man can be too careful
and painful under all these motives and engagements? Or can that man be a fit instrument
for other men’s illumination, who is himself so blind? or for the quickening of
others, who is himself so senseless? What, sirs! are ye, who are men of wisdom, as dull as
the common people? and do we need to heap up a multitude of words to persuade you to a
known and weighty duty? One would think it should be enough to set you on work, to show a
line in the Book of God; to prove it to be his will; or to prove to you that the work hath
a tendency to promote men’s salvation. One would think that the very sight of your
miserable neighbors would be motive sufficient to draw out your most compassionate
endeavors for their relief. If a cripple do but unlap his sores, and show you his disabled
limbs, it will move you without words; and will not the case of souls, that are near to
damnation, move you? O happy church, if the physicians were but healed themselves; and if
we had not too much of that infidelity and stupidity against which we daily preach in
others; and were more soundly persuaded of that of which we persuade others; and were more
deeply affected with the wonderful things wherewith we would affect them!
Were there but such clear and deep impressions upon our own souls of those glorious things
which we daily preach, oh what a change would it make in our sermons, and in our private
course of life! Oh what a miserable thing it is to the Church and to themselves, that men
must preach of heaven and hell, before they soundly believe that there are such things, or
have felt the weight of the doctrines which they preach! It would amaze a sensible man to
think what matters we preach and talk of; what it is for the soul to pass out of this
flesh, and appear before a righteous God, and enter upon unchangeable joy or unchangeable
torment! Oh, with what amazing thoughts do dying men apprehend these things! How should
such matters be preached and discoursed of! Oh the gravity, the seriousness, the incessant
diligence, which these things require! I know not what others think of them; but for my
part, I am ashamed of my stupidity, and wonder at myself that I deal not with my own and
others’ souls, as one that looks for the great day of the Lord; and that I can have
room for almost any other thoughts or words; and that such astonishing matters do not
wholly absorb my mind. I marvel how I can preach of them slightly and coldly, and how I
can let men alone in their sins, and that I do not go to them, and beseech them, for the
Lord’s sake, to repent, however they may take it, and whatever pains or trouble it
may cost me! I seldom come out of the pulpit, but my conscience smiteth me that I have
been no more serious and fervent in such a case. It accuseth me not so much for want of
ornaments or elegancy, nor for letting fall an unhandsome word; but it asketh me,
‘How couldst thou speak of life and death with such a heart? How couldst thou preach
of heaven and hell in such a careless, sleepy manner Dost thou believe what thou sayest?
Art thou in earnest or in jest? How canst thou tell people that sin is such a thing, and
that so much misery is upon them and before them, and be no more affected with it?
Shouldst thou not weep over such a people, and should not thy tears interrupt thy words?
Shouldst not thou cry aloud, and show them their transgressions, and entreat and beseech
them as for life and death? ’ Truly, this is the peal that conscience doth ring in my
ears, and yet my drowsy soul will not be awakened.
Oh what a thing is a senseless, hardened heart! O Lord, save us from the plague of
infidelity and hard-heartedness ourselves, or else how shall we be fit instruments of
saving others from it? Oh, do that on our own souls, which thou wouldst use us to do on
the souls of others! I am even confounded to think what a difference there is between my
sickbed apprehensions, and my pulpit apprehensions, of the life to come; that ever that
can seem so light a matter to me now, which seemed so great and astonishing a matter then,
and I know will do so again when death looks me in the face, when yet I daily know and
think of that approaching hour; and yet these forethoughts will not recover such working
apprehensions! O sirs, surely if you had all conversed with neighbor Death as oft as I
have done, and as often received the sentence in yourselves, you would have an unquiet
conscience, if not a reformed life, as to your ministerial diligence and fidelity; and you
would have something within you that would frequently ask you such questions as these:
‘Is this all thy compassion for lost sinners? Wilt thou do no more to seek and to
save them? Is there not such and such — oh how many round about thee! — that are
yet the visible sons of death? What hast thou said to them, or done for their conversion?
Shall they die and be in hell before thou wilt speak to them one serious word to prevent
it? shall they there curse thee for ever that didst no more in time to save them? ’
Such cries of conscience are daily ringing in mine ears, though, the Lord knows, I have
too little obeyed them. The God of mercy pardon me, and awaken me, with the rest of his
servants that have been thus sinfully negligent. I confess to my shame that I seldom hear
the bell toll for one that is dead, but conscience asketh me, ‘What hast thou done
for the saving of that soul before it left the body? There is one more gone to judgment;
what didst thou to prepare him for judgment? ’ and yet I have been slothful and
backward to help them that survive. How can you choose, when you are laying a corpse in
the grave, but think with yourselves, ‘Here lieth the body; but where is the soul?
and what have I done for it, before it departed? It was part of my charge; what account
can I give of it? ’
O sirs, is it a small matter to you to answer such questions as these? It may seem so now,
but the hour is coming when it will not seem so. ‘If our hearts condemn us, God is
greater than our hearts,’ and will condemn us much more, even with another kind of
condemnation than conscience doth. The voice of conscience is a still voice, and the
sentence of conscience is a gentle sentence, in comparison of the voice and the sentence
of God. Alas! conscience seeth but a very little of our sin and misery, in comparison of
what God seeth. What mountains would these things appear to your souls, which now seem
molehills What beams would these be in your eyes, that now seem motes, if you did but see
them with a clearer light? (I dare not say, As God seeth them.) We can easily make shift
to plead the cause with conscience, and either bribe it, or bear its sentence; but God is
not so easily dealt with, nor his sentence so easily borne. ‘Wherefore we
receiving,’ and preaching, ‘a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace
whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence, and godly fear; for our God is a
consuming fire.’ But because you shall not say that I affright you with bugbears, and
tell you of dangers and terrors when there are none, I will here show you the certainty
and sureness of that condemnation that is like to befall negligent pastors, particularly
how many will be ready to rise up against us and condemn us, if we shall hereafter be
wilful neglecters of this great work.
(1) Our parents, that destined us to the ministry, will condemn us, and say, ‘Lord, we devoted them to thy service, and they made light of it, and served themselves.’
(2) Our masters that taught us, our tutors that instructed us, the schools and universities where we lived, and all the years that we spent in study, will rise up in judgment against us, and condemn us; for why was all this, but for the work of God
(3) Our learning and knowledge and ministerial gifts will condemn us; for to what end were we made partakers of these, but for the work of God
(4) Our voluntary undertaking the charge of souls will condemn us; for all men should be faithful to the trust which they have undertaken.
(5) All the care of God for his Church, and all that Christ hath done and suffered for it, will rise up in judgment against us, if we be negligent and unfaithful, and condemn us; because by our neglect we destroyed them for whom Christ died.
(6) All the precepts and charges of Holy Scripture, all the promises of assistance and reward, all the threatenings of punishment, will rise up against us and condemn us; for God did not speak all this in vain.
(7) All the examples of the prophets and apostles, and other preachers recorded in Scripture, and all the examples of the faithful and diligent servants of Christ in these latter times, and in the places around us, will rise up in judgment and condemn us; for all these were for our imitation, and to provoke us to a holy emulation in fidelity and ministerial diligence.
(8) The Holy Bible that lies open before us, and all the books in our studies that tell us of our duty, directly or indirectly, will condemn the lazy and unprofitable servant; for we have not all these helps and furniture in vain.
(9) All the sermons that we preach to persuade our people to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, to lay violent hands upon the crown of life, and take the kingdom by force, to strive to enter in at the strait gate, and so to run as to obtain, will rise up against the unfaithful and condemn them; for if it so nearly concern them to labor for their salvation, doth it not concern us who have the charge of them to be also violent, laborious, and unwearied in striving to help on their salvation? Is it worth their labor, and patience, and is it not also worth ours?
(10) All the sermons that we preach to them to set forth the evil of sin, the danger of a natural state, the need of a Savior, the joys of heaven, and the torments of hell, yea, and the truth of the Christian religion, will rise up in judgment against the unfaithful, and condemn them. And a sad review it will be to themselves, when they shall be forced to think, ‘Did I tell them of such great dangers and hopes in public, and would I do no more, in private, to help them? What? tell them daily of damnation, and yet let them run into it so easily? Tell them of such a glory, and scarcely speak a word to them personally, to help them to it? Were these such great matters with me at church, and so small matters when I came home? ’ Ah! this will be dreadful self-condemnation.
(11) All the sermons that we have preached to persuade other men to such duties — as neighbors to exhort one another daily, and parents and masters to teach their children and servants the way to heaven — will rise up in judgment against the unfaithful, and condemn them; for will you persuade others to that which you will not do, as far as you can, yourselves? When you threaten them for neglecting their duty, how much more do you threaten your own souls!
(12) All the maintenance which we take for our service, if we be unfaithful will condemn us; for who is it that will pay a servant to take his pleasure, or sit idle, or work for himself. If we have the fleece, surely it is that we may look after the flock; and, by taking the wages, we oblige ourselves to the work.
(13) All the witness that we have borne against the scandalous, negligent ministers of this age, and all the endeavors that we have used for their removal, will condemn the unfaithful; for God is no respecter of persons. If we succeed them in their sins, we have spoken all that against ourselves; and, as we condemned them, God and others will condemn us, if we imitate them. And, though we should not be so bad as they, it will prove sad if we are even like them.
(14) All the judgments that God hath, in this age, executed on negligent ministers, before our eyes, will condemn us, if we be unfaithful. Hath he made the idle shepherds and sensual drones to stink in the nostrils of the people? And will he honor us, if we be idle and sensual? Hath he sequestrated them, and cast them out of their habitations, and out of their pulpits, and laid them by as dead, while they are yet alive, and made them a hissing and a by-word in the land? And yet dare we imitate them Are not their sufferings our warnings? and did not all this befall them as an example to us? If any thing in the world would awaken ministers to self-denial and diligence, methinks we have seen enough to do it. Would you have imitated the old world if you had seen the flood that drowned it? Would you have indulged in the sins of Sodom — idleness, pride, fullness of bread — if you had stood by, and seen the flames which consumed it ascending up to heaven? Who would have been a Judas, that had seen him hanged and burst asunder? And who would have been a lying, sacrilegious hypocrite, that had seen Ananias and Sapphira die! And who would not have been afraid to contradict the gospel, that had seen Elymas smitten with blindness And shall we prove idle, self-seeking ministers, when we have seen God scourging such out of his temple, and sweeping them away as dirt into the channels? God forbid! For then how great and how manifold will our condemnation be"
(15) Lastly, All the days of fasting and prayer, which have, of late years, been kept in England for a reformation, will rise up in judgment against the unreformed, who will not be persuaded to the painful part of the work. This, I confess, is so heavy an aggravation of our sin, that it makes me ready to tremble to think of it. Was there ever a nation on the face of the earth, which so long and so solemnly followed God with fasting and prayer, as we have done? Before the parliament began, bow frequent and fervent were we in secret! After that, for many years together, we had a monthly fast commanded by the parliament, besides frequent private and public fasts on other occasions. And what was all this for? Whatever was, for some time, the means we looked at, yet still the end of all our prayers was Church-reformation, and, therein, especially these two things, a faithful ministry, and the exercise of discipline in the Church. And did it once enter then into the hearts of the people, or even into our own hearts, to imagine, that when we had all we would have, and the matter was put into our own hands, to be as painful as we could, and to exercise what discipline we would, that then we would do nothing but publicly preach? that we would not be at the pains of catechizing and instructing our people personally, nor exercise any considerable part of discipline at all? It astonisheth me to think of it. What a depth of deceit is the heart of man! What? are good men’s hearts so deceitful Are all men’s hearts so deceitful? I confess, I then told many soldiers, and other sensual men, that though they had fought for a reformation, I was confident they would abhor it, and be enemies to it, when they saw and felt it; thinking that the yoke of discipline would have pinched their necks, and that, when they were catechized and personally dealt with, and reproved for their sin, in private and public, and brought to public confession and repentance, or avoided as impenitent, they would scorn and spurn at all this, and take the yoke of Christ for tyranny; but little did I think that the ministers would let all fall, and put almost none of this upon them; but let them alone for fear of displeasing them, and let all run on as it did before.
Oh the earnest prayers which I have heard
for a painful ministry, and for discipline! It was as if they had even wrestled for
salvation itself. Yea, they commonly called discipline, ‘the kingdom of Christ, or
the exercise of his kingly office in his church," and so preached and prayed for it,
as if the setting up of discipline had been the setting up of the kingdom of Christ. And
did I then think that they would refuse to set it up when they might? What! is the kingdom
of Christ now reckoned among things indifferent?
If the God of heaven, who knew our hearts, had, in the midst of our prayers and cries, on
one of our public monthly fasts, returned us this answer, with his dreadful voice, in the
audience of the assembly: ‘You deceitful-hearted sinners! What hypocrisy is this, to
weary me with your cries for that which you will not have, if I would give it to you; and
thus to lift up your voices for that which your souls abhor! What is reformation, but the
instructing and importunate persuading of sinners to entertain my Christ and grace, as
offered to them, and the governing of my Church according to my word? Yet these, which are
your work, you will not be persuaded to, when you come to find it troublesome and
ungrateful. When I have delivered you, it is not me, but yourselves, that you will serve;
and I must be as earnest to persuade you to reform the Church, in doing your own duty, as
you are earnest with me to grant you liberty for reformation. And, when all is done, you
will leave it undone, and will be long before you will be persuaded to my work.’ If
the Lord, or any messenger of his, had given us such an answer, would it not have amazed
us? Would it not have seemed incredible to us, that our hearts should be such as now they
prove? And would we not have said, as Hazael, ‘Is thy servant a dog, that he should
do this thing ‘ or as Peter, ‘Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I?
’ Well, brethren, sad experience hath showed us our frailty. We have refused the
troublesome and costly part of the reformation that we prayed for; but Christ yet turneth
back, and looketh with a merciful eye upon us. Oh that we had yet the hearts immediately
to go out and weep bitterly, and to do no more as we have done, lest a worse thing come
upon us; and now to follow Christ, whom we have so far forsaken, through labor and
suffering, even though it were to death!
I have thus showed you what will come of it, if you will not set yourselves faithfully to
this work, to which you are under so many obligations and engagements; and what an
inexcusable thing our neglect will be, and how great and manifold a condemnation it will
expose us to. Truly, brethren, if I did not apprehend the work to be of exceeding great
moment to yourselves, to the people, and to the honor of God, I would not have troubled
you with so many words about it, nor have presumed to speak so sharply as I have done. But
when the question is about life and death, men are apt to forget their reverence and
courtesy and compliments and good manners. For my own part I apprehend this is one of the
best and greatest works I ever in my life put my hand to; and I verily think, that if your
thoughts of it are as mine, you will not think my words too many or too keen. I can well
remember the time when I was earnest for the reformation of matters of ceremony; and, if I
should be cold in such substantial matter as this, how disorderly and disproportionable
would my zeal appear! Alas! can we think that the reformation is wrought, when we cast out
a few ceremonies, and changed some vestures, and gestures, and forms! Oh no, sirs’!
it is the converting and saving of souls that is our business. That is the chiefest part
of reformation, that doth most good, and tendeth most to the salvation of the people.
And now, brethren, the work is before you. In these personal instructions of all the
flock, as well as in public preaching, doth it consist. Others have done their part, and
borne their burden, and now comes in yours. You may easily see how great a matter lies
upon your hands, and how many will be wronged by your failing of your duty, and how much
will be lost by the sparing of your labor. If your labor be more worth than the souls of
men, and than the blood of Christ, then sit still, and look not after the ignorant or the
ungodly; follow your own pleasure or worldly business, or take your ease; displease not
sinners, nor your own flesh, but let your neighbors sink or swim; and, if public preaching
will not save them, let them perish. But, if the case be far otherwise, you had best look
about you.
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